Cleveland, Maple Heights voters smack down red-light cameras

Cleveland's traffic enforcement cameras, such as this one near the corner of East 71st Street and Chester Avenue, could be a thing of the past after voters approved a ballot initiative to restrict the program.

According to unofficial elections results, Cleveland voters approved -- by a three-to-one margin -- a charter change that bans using the cameras "unless a law enforcement officer is present at the location of the device and personally issues a ticket to the alleged violator at the time and date of the violation."

Maple Heights' amendment, which also passed with 76 percent of the vote, goes further, prohibiting the city from entering into a contract with a traffic camera vendor if payment is contingent upon the number of tickets issued. The amendment also mandates that violations be tried before a municipal or common pleas judge and that defendants be afforded the same rights they would receive if facing criminal charges.

The intent of the charter changes was to undermine the business models of both cities' traffic camera systems, which are designed to run without officers present and treat citations as civil infractions.

In Cleveland, a group of activists spent the past four years collecting more than 13,000 signatures on petitions that they submitted to the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections. That's more than twice the number required to put the question to voters, according to elections officials.

Last week, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson made his final case to voters, emphasizing what he called the "facts" about the cameras and foreshadowing a future without them.

The mayor said that 80 percent of the cameras are in the city's highest crash intersections or thoroughfares. The number of citations issued has declined dramatically, from 118,000 in 2008 to 77,000 last year – evidence that the cameras affect driver behavior and road safety, he said.

About 70 percent of the camera tickets are issued to drivers who live outside of the city and are photographed recklessly speeding through Cleveland neighborhoods and school zones on their way to and from their suburban homes, Jackson said.

He expressed concern over budgetary cuts that would be necessary without the $6 million the cameras bring in each year. He guaranteed that he would not cut funding for recreation centers, playgrounds or programs for children – line items totaling just over $12 million.

Jackson said that stationing police officers at each of Cleveland's 64 traffic enforcement cameras for 24 hours a day, as the charter amendment requires, would mean hiring $19 million worth of new officers.

Alternatively, the city could tap current officers for the traffic details, leaving neighborhoods without police protection, he said.

At a recent rally for the initiative, activists challenged the city's claims that the cameras are predominantly about safety, arguing that they are just another way to gouge the average resident.

Each ticket from one of the cameras takes $60 out of the local economy, as the city only receives $40 out of a $100 ticket, Sonenshein said.

City officials in Maple Heights tried in August to delay adding the red-light camera initiative to the ballot, arguing that City Council was following rules set out in its charter that required the proposal to be referred to an appropriate committee and receive three readings.

But as the filing deadline loomed, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the Ohio Constitution "imposes a 'mandatory constitutional duty' upon city councils to submit charter amendment initiatives 'forthwith.'"

Stay tuned to cleveland.com this week for more on the future of the camera program.